The Gap Road saga playing out at the Big Build royal commission opens an extraordinary window into how the CFMEU took control of major projects in the state of Victoria.
asserted
CFMEU → play → Victoria
The hearings this week have shown two things.
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hearings → show → things
The CFMEU used brute force, regardless of the law, to muscle their way into civil construction in 2022, and the government of Daniel Andrews smoothed their way, with menaces.
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government → use → menaces
Just sitting in the sterile royal commission hearing room, you can feel the pressure on the construction companies removing the Sunshine level crossing in June 2022.
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you → sit → June
Within a strict 30-day deadline, working 24 hours a day, contractors under John Holland and CPB had to rip up the rail line, relocate utilities, build a bridge over Gap Road and install rails over it so that trains could run again.
uncertain
trains → work → it
For that month-long site takeover – called an “occupation” – the train line was closed, relegating passengers to bus replacements, and the entire network suffered disruptions.
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network → call → disruptions
The contractors were liable for $750,000 a day and, if they had to come back again, another occupation might take six months or more to book in.
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occupation → have → months
It was at this time, the time of highest vulnerability, that the CFMEU’s most militant operators – senior official Joe Myles, and Paul Tzimas – struck.
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operators → strike → vulnerability
They wanted to dictate terms.
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They → want → terms
So on Monday, June 6, 2022, multiple officials stormed in and shut it down.
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officials → storm → it
They occupied the occupation.
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They → occupy → occupation
“I don’t think they were allowed to enter.
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they → think → ?
I think they just entered,” crane operator and health and safety rep Glenn Tyrrell told the commission on Tuesday.
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Tyrrell → think → Tuesday
“They would stand in front of machinery and plant and just tell the operator that he must stop it.”
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he → stand → it
Tzimas sat on a water barrier.
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Tzimas → sit → barrier
He filmed workers trying to do their jobs, suggesting they would be personally targeted.
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they → film → jobs
And when staff from the piling contractor, Wagstaff, turned up to work that evening, the CFMEU officials told them “f--- you” and threatened to make their lives personally difficult.
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lives → turn → you
The workers “did not wish to work tonight under this pressure”, according to a note tendered to the commission.
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workers → wish → commission
The union officials were there purportedly under their right to enter a site to address an occupational health and safety risk.
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officials → enter → risk
They cited an array of bogus faults: foul weather, risk assessments required on particular pieces of machinery or just that the site was generally “unsafe”.
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site → cite → machinery
Steve Testolin, a general superintendent for John Holland, spent that day walking around the site listening to their demands.
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Testolin → spend → demands
He did not sleep on the night of June 6, he said, knowing the next day would be the same.
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day → sleep → June
Arguably the union was breaking various laws.
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union → break → laws
Neil Thompson, the site’s health and safety manager and a supervisor, Robert Van Den Tol, called both police and WorkSafe.
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Thompson → call → police
Victoria Police – the agency Jacinta Allan repeatedly said people should complain to if they had a problem on the state’s Big Build projects – turned up, then left again, saying it was an industrial issue.
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it → say → projects
WorkSafe did not show – at least not in time.
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WorkSafe → show → time
So the builders appealed to the contractors – state government agencies.
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builders → appeal → contractors
Those agencies appealed higher still.
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agencies → appeal → ?
On Friday, the most senior public official yet to give evidence, Rail Projects Victoria chief operating officer Peter Wilkinson, said he had talked to his boss, Evan Tattersall, the chief executive, about what was going, on.
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what → give → boss
Tattersall called the office of the minister, Jacinta Allan.
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Tattersall → call → minister
In the Harry S. Truman adage, the minister’s office is where the buck is supposed to stop.
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buck → suppose → adage
It did not.
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It → do → ?
Instead, the minister’s office passed it back down the line.
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office → pass → line
Tattersall relayed the message to Wilkinson: “If they [the contractors] can’t handle the industrial [relations] in Victoria, then they can’t have any more work.
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they → relay → work
Not only did Allan’s office tell the consortium, under unimaginable pressure, to do a dodgy deal with the CFMEU, they added a threat.
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they → tell → threat
Nobody even took a note of the interaction.
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Nobody → take → interaction
It left the construction companies with no choice.
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It → leave → choice
They were dragged, humiliatingly, to the union office to do a deal that favoured the side which had arguably broken the law.
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which → drag → law
Consortium delivery director Stephen Villella said it felt like being told to “bend the knee”.
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it → say → knee
Well, it ended up firmly in the pockets of the CFMEU.
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it → end → CFMEU
…and 12 more, not listed.
The Aporia
